The Wetfoot Blog

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Staff Board Reps - Report on the November Board Meeting

From Sarah Judkins and Katie Lindahl:

Hello Fellow Staff! On November 8th, Anna Ficken, Sarah Judkins, and Katie Lindahl attended the Fall Board of Directors Meeting representing your voice. Now we would like to report back to you about what we discussed and your concerns that we shared.

The meeting focused on governance as the Board restructures itself to better serve Camp. A main structural change includes the consolidation of the Leadership, Summer Camp, and Tripping Committees into one Program Group that will focus on the integration of the three components and the model that camp stands strong on all three of those pillars. Other discussion was on the role of the board and its place in governance versus management.

A Tripping Ad Hoc Committee is currently being formed. This committee, chartered by Jay Creagh and chaired by Jon Helminiak (you may have paddled his canoe), will make sure that we will continue to be able to send out quality trips. The committee will look at the availability of land not only in the Northwoods, but in all of camp’s tripping areas and the other challenges that our tripping program may face in the future.

We continue to raise the concern of ‘going green’ to the board and have had positive feedback from many board members. We would love to see it be incorporated into the upcoming Strategic Plan/Vision for Camp.

Also of interest: The Property Committee reported that the heating and ventilation in Schwartz is being redesigned to function properly and camp is now waiting for bids. The Nash kitchen renovation is contracted to be done by May 1st, but is expected to be done much earlier. Other news reported is that 47 campers have signed up for the four-week summer camp session, while we had only budgeted for an expected 36!

Lastly, congratulations to Sam Kruckenberg for being selected as the incoming Board Representative. We look forward to working with Sam over the next year! Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns at any time. Anyone can request a copy of the minutes from Anne Derber…just send her an email.